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Review: 'Red Velvet' an agonizing tale of injustice

David Lyman, Special to Cincinnati Enquirer
Published 2:38 p.m. ET March 9, 2018

Ken Early, right, stars as Ira Aldridge in the Ensemble Theatre Cincinnati production of “Red Velvet.” He’s seen here with Becca Howell, who plays a young Polish reporter trying to interview him. The show runs through March 31. Aldridge was a 19th Century British-American actor who was, according to ETC, the first African-American actor to play the role of Othello on an English stage.(Photo: Provided/Mikki Schaffner)

It’s London, 1833. One of the great actors of the English stage, Edmund Kean, has fallen ill and must be replaced in the title role of “Othello.” Fortunately, producer Pierre Laporte knows who to turn to.

When the new actor, Ira Aldridge, walks into the rehearsal, the room stops. What on earth was Laporte thinking? Some of the actors are outraged. Laporte’s outlandish sin? He has hired a black actor to play the role of Shakespeare’s famed black general.

To our modern sensibilities, the central outrage of “Red Velvet,” running until March 31 at Ensemble Theatre Cincinnati, seems ludicrous. Today, it would be unthinkable to hire an actor who isn’t black to play the role. But this was 1833. Authenticity wasn’t the goal of the Victorian stage. Never mind that Aldridge was more than capable in the role. His skin was the wrong color to star on an English stage.

Bit by bit, Lolita Chakrabarti’s script pulls in other elements of Aldridge’s life; his tragic beginnings in the United States, his marriage to a white Englishwoman, his years of touring Europe, his adoration by audiences, his rejection by English producers.

It’s a fascinating story, especially if Aldridge is someone you’re unfamiliar with. But Chakrabarti’s abilities as a storyteller don’t match her eagerness to share the tale. The result is a script that is sometimes clunky, sometimes bloated and occasionally sprinkled with modern-day phrases that jolt the ear.

Despite these shortcomings – and they are significant – the story itself is an intriguing one. Even more so when we get to the second act, where Aldridge finally makes it to the stage and the play’s many tragedies, both onstage and off, begin to unfold more quickly.

Carrying all of this on his shoulders is Ken Early as Aldridge. Physically, he is an imposing actor, tall and with a regal air he wears as naturally as most of us wear a shirt. He builds a character who is almost fanatical in his need to be perfect. How else can he prove his worth in this whites-only world of actors? But it’s not just about race for him. He is so driven that he obsesses over the tiniest of mistakes rather than take any pleasure in his successes.

Ken Early stars as Ira Aldridge in the Ensemble Theatre Cincinnati production of “Red Velvet.” Aldridge was a 19th Century British-American actor who was, according to ETC, the first African-American actor to play the role of Othello on an English stage. The show runs through March 31.(Photo: Provided/Mikki Schaffner)

Guest director Brian Isaac Phillips, the producing artistic director of Cincinnati Shakespeare Company, has brought over a handful of his own company members to build a robust supporting cast. There is Brent Vimtrup as Laporte. Their scene near the end of the show, where Aldridge’s idealism crashes into Laporte’s need to be realistic, is much too long, but also one of the show’s most compelling.

Kelly Mengelkoch plays Aldridge’s onstage co-star Ellen Tree. As she so often does, Mengelkoch gives a gripping performance, teetering between reassuring colleague and captivated seductress. Jeremy Dubin has a small role as Aldridge’s man-servant, while Burgess Byrd plays a Jamaican servant who stands silently at the rear of the stage, serving tea and biscuits to the white cast and crew. The one scene where she speaks is her weakest. But when she is silent, she is a riveting presence, a conscience for all that is taking place in front of her. In those moments, hers is a heartbreaking role.

Becca Howell makes a wonderful impression in the dual role of Aldridge’s loyal but fragile wife and as an over-eager reporter frustrated by her lack of progress in a male-dominated profession. Finally, there is Jared Joplin as Charles Kean, whose jealousy and thinly veiled racism threaten to erupt any moment he is on the stage.

“Red Velvet” is a not-very-skillful play given a very skillful production. To some, that equation may not be enough. To me, though, watching these actors – some of them very fine – wend their way through this agonizing tale of injustice was worth the occasional bumpiness of the ride.